


a cat is no angel

by pallasjoanna



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cat!Adrien, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-11 01:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5609110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasjoanna/pseuds/pallasjoanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien gets turned into a cat, Marinette adopts said cat, Plagg just wants cheese, and Tikki just wants some peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a cat is no angel

“You know,” Adrien says while scanning the list of missing pets tacked on a corkboard. “If my father ever finds out that I’m at a police station right now, I’ll be grounded forever.”

No response. Just the slightest rough exhale that Adrien would hopefully call a snort. He looks sideways at Ladybug. To a casual passerby, there doesn’t seem to be anything off about her. Her expression is all business, her lips pursed as if she is concentrating on something significant, but through all the time that Adrien has spent with her, he now notices the tense line of her shoulders and the way her hands twitch as if she’s resisting the urge to clench them into fists.

He resists the urge to sigh on his part. So they’re still ‘not talking’. Fine by him. He petulantly crosses his arms and turns back to the list.

He’s already counting the number of missing cats named Felix by the time Agent Roger comes into the office to meet them. Sabrina’s dad looks harried, and Adrien hopes that the mayor’s raise is enough to stop him from being akumatized again.

“Ah, Ladybug, Chat Noir, good to see the both of you.” Agent Roger drops a sizeable pile of folders onto his desk. “Have a seat. The mayor’s been breathing down my neck about this, so I’ve decided to ask you both for your help.”

“We’ll—“ Adrien finds him and Ladybug opening their mouths at the same time. A second of fumbling ensues before he gestures for her continue instead.

“We’ll do what we can.” Ladybug says. Adrien can’t help but note that she’s more relaxed now, words cool and flowing instead of clipped one-word sentences with him. He shakes his head the tiniest bit to clear it. “But if it’s not related to akumas, then we’re not sure how much of a help we can be.”

“We’re not sure what’s happening either. For the past two days, these two kids have gone missing.” Agent Roger flips open a folder to show them two pictures of people around their age: a girl with a prominent scowl and a boy with a gap-toothed smile. There’s something about their faces that strikes Adrien as familiar. “Brother and sister. Thought at first it’s for the money, but their family hasn’t received any ransom note. Could be personal, but—” he shrugs.

“That’s just—“ If eyes could set things on fire, the folder would have been a pile of ashes right now under Ladybug’s withering glare. “They live in Paris? I don’t think I’ve seen them around,” she says instead.

Finally Adrien remembers where he’s seen them. “They don’t go to Dupont, do they? Their families are good friends with the mayor’s.” Or at least he thinks they are, since he knows he’s seen them at a rather boring dinner party where families like his and Chloe’s were invited. “Wait, what if—“

Agent Roger nods. “You don’t have to worry about that. We’ve already increased security around them.”

At first Adrien perks up when they start going over details and scanning footage with the intention to help, but as the hour goes on, he—for the first time—acutely feels the frustration of being a clueless fifteen year-old who happens to be a superhero. All those crime serials make it seem so easy, but there’s no eureka moment that strikes out at him on his third viewing of the video of the siblings playing with their pets in their sort-of zoo at their backyard before the thing blacks out and they vanish. He’s tempted to point out the cat or the raccoon roaming the enclosure as the suspects on the fifth. He’s so out of his depth here, fish out of water and all that, and he crosses off ‘private detective’ on his mental list of things he could do if he weren’t a model.

There’s always hope in practice though.

His only consolation to feeling useless is the fact that Ladybug appears just as clueless about this as he does. He wonders if Paris even knows that its two superheroes are two teenagers. At least he thinks Ladybug is still within his age range, considering her height and that automatic feeling of solidarity you get when you’re with someone around your age. Of course, maybe she really is five thousand years old and still looking good, and it’ll still do nothing to diminish the fact that he’s in love with her.

Which is only about twelve percent of the reason why he’s trying to get her to talk to him again, but mostly it’s because he’s really sorry about their fight-slash-shouting-match last night and he really doesn’t want to lose one of his only friends just because Adrien couldn’t ‘stick to the plan’ in an akuma battle. He thinks he was completely justified in doing it at the time, but at this point, that’s beside the point.

Ladybug throws him a quick glance, as if the intensity of his thoughts has managed to reach her through his sheer force of will. She turns back to the screen too quickly though. It’s only now that Adrien realizes that he’s been staring at her for the last ten minutes instead of being a responsible superhero.

Their night ends without much progress on that. “We’ll keep our eyes and ears open,” Ladybug promises for the both of them as Agent Roger bids them goodbye.

While it’s late enough that there’s breathing space right on the sidewalk, there are still enough people whose heads swivel around at the sight of them. Adrien flashes them a grin and is rather gratified when most of them smile back or dissolve into giggles. Ladybug waves back at her adoring fans, but she’s mostly preoccupied in looking up at the streetlamps and rooftops.

It takes five seconds for Adrien to realize she’s looking for an exit point. He wrenches his eyes away from admiring her profile in the gauzy light as she takes out her yoyo and makes a weird jerky movement as he decides and un-decides to touch her shoulder five times in the space of a breath.

Adrien settles for a light tap on her wrist. “Are we still going to patrol? It would be paw-sitively purr-fect—“ He’s encouraged by the fact that Ladybug doesn’t pull that constipated-looking expression of hers when he uses his more usual puns. “—if we could _talk_ , my lady.”

Ladybug tilts her head. “I’m going home. I’ve got… things to do.”

“Oh. Okay then.” His shoulders slump. Well, at the very least he’s thrilled that she wasn’t speaking in one-word sentences anymore.  Maybe he should try a different tact instead—

“No, I mean—“ She huffs. “I really have _things_ to do. Civilian things. Secret identity things. And honestly, I think we’ll sort this out better once we get some sleep.” She offers a fist and a tiny smile like a truce. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

He feels his heart in his chest soar with a tiny hope, and he bumps her fist with his. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll even be early this once.”

* * *

 

When Adrien wakes up the next morning, he gets the feeling that things are finally starting to look up for him this week.

“Since your grades have been dropping lately, your father wishes to inform you that you’re grounded until you can improve your class standing,” Nathalie informs him apologetically over breakfast—at least as apologetic as Nathalie can get.

Adrien deflates a little. Okay, maybe not, but it can’t be that bad.

“Yo dude!” Nino waves as Adrien enters the classroom. “The class is getting ice cream after gym. You up for it?”

Now _that_ is just unfair.

(At this rate he’s half-expecting to get smacked by one of Alix’s spikes when he gets placed in the opposing team from her in gym. She looks at him weirdly throughout the match as if she knows and he swears she grins when one brushes past the top of his head. Marinette does a save behind him.)

He ends up staying behind in the changing room while everyone else goes to the ice cream shop near school since being grounded means that Nathalie’s going to pick him up right on dismissal time. Nino, ever his best friend, promises him free ice cream when he’s not grounded anymore. The room is blessedly empty and quiet which means Plagg gets to breathe outside his bag and Adrien gets to complain out loud.

“Okay, serious question, Plagg,” Adrien starts because his brain is going to imagine the worst outcomes for this evening if he doesn’t talk to someone. He fishes his fencing jacket from the bottom of his locker, sniffing it first, then the air in Plagg’s direction. Deeming the smell worse than the cheese, he tosses it on the bench to bring it home for a wash. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad was it?”

His pre-patrol jitters have only intensified thanks to Googling relationship advice—his internet history can attest to that. Plagg gulps down the chunk of cheese and Adrien looks up, waits with bated breath for a piece of wisdom from a five thousand something year-old being.

“What ‘ _it_ ’?” Plagg asks. “Oho, you mean your break up with Ladybug?”

Adrien groans. “Plagg.”

“That was one of the loudest lover’s spats in the last two centuries.”

“ _Plagg._ ”

“Of course, the both of you can’t beat the Spanish when it comes to arguing,” Plagg continues, sounding very much like he enjoys the relentless teasing. “I think I was deaf for fifty years.”

“So it’s… not that bad?”

Here, Plagg has mercy on him. “Look, kid, it’s not the end of world. Every Ladybug and Chat Noir argues over that at least once, so nothing to worry about, nothing at all.” He pauses then continues. “Of course, if you were asking about how bad your sad mopey face was for the past two days, the French need to invent a new number for that.”

“Ha ha.” But Plagg’s statement does comfort him. Somewhat. He finally finds the gloves folded with his pants and shoves those in his bag. “What kind of flowers would she like?” he muses out loud, intending to see if he can convince Nathalie to stop by a flower shop so he can pick out a bouquet with the proper flower language.

“Adrien—“

That’s when the changing room door slams open with enough force to chip plaster and rain rubble from the ceiling.

* * *

 

A list of things that should make Adrien feel better but don’t:

  1. He was so right about the raccoon all along.



* * *

 

This is not one of Marinette’s better days.

She knows it for a fact when she catches herself just before she falls face-first into her bowl of half-melted ice cream. When she gathers enough presence of mind to stop sleepily staring into space, she’s confused at how the conversation went from Alix’s new skates to an actual arm wrestling match with Kim that makes Marinette worry for the table. At least she manages to catch her spoon before it falls off when Alix slams Kim’s arm down.

“You okay? You’ve been really out of it lately,” Alya asks her while Max explains in the background how Alix attempting to steal Kim’s ice cream as a distraction wasn’t against the rules. “And do you have a grudge against chocolate or something?”

Marinette looks down to see she’s just stabbing her spoon into the half-melted goop instead of scooping it up. This has to be a new low, she sadly thinks as she stares at the goop, if ice cream can’t bring her out of her funk. “Nope, it’s just—I haven’t slept much because—“

_Because I’m Ladybug and akumas have this irritating tendency not to attack when I actually have enough sleep and no classes and did I mention Chat Noir and I are fighting? In a shout-y kind of way? Granted we’ll probably have a nice heart-to-heart tonight but still—_

At least, that’s what she wants to tell Alya if her best friend actually knows she’s Ladybug which cannot happen. Like ever. But Alya purses her mouth into a thin line and she has this look which Marinette calls the ‘your face is twitching weirdly so I need to get to the bottom of this’ look, so for one moment, she has to wonder if Alya has secretly had mind-reading powers all along.

Or maybe that’s just the sleep-deprivation-induced-paranoia talking. . “—because of that physics exam! I really failed that one, huh?”

“I think most of us bombed on that.” Alya looks sympathetic, not suspicious, and Marinette restrains herself from exhaling audibly. Secret identity—safe for another day.

The afternoon is cheerily sunny when she opts to leave early. A bit of cloud cover would be very much appreciated, world, thank you very much, but since changing the weather is in no way part of her powers, she hums to herself as she walks home to distract her from the stifling heat.

* * *

 

A list of things Marinette has to do today:

  1. Finish her stress knitting project.
  2. Help out in the bakery.
  3. Finish her homework (if possible).
  4. Go to patrol and bring some chocolate chip bread. Food helps solve a lot of things, she finds.
  5. Get. Some. Sleep.



* * *

 

Then she’s startled by an inhuman screech that sounds like it rose from hell coming from the school so Marinette sprints toward it, bracing herself for an akuma attack. Or it could be a prank by the more senior students. Or worse, like last month, both. She’s already at the steps toward the gym when something fast and hairy and yellow races down the stairs. It gets tangled in her legs and she yelps as she tries not to fall flat on her butt but by the time she regains her balance, it’s already gone into the sidewalk.

The trail of startled and annoyed pedestrians is easy enough to follow.  She ends up elbowing them and yelling apologies of her own as she runs for it. It’s heading in the direction of the bakery and Marinette really really hopes that it’s not an akuma or anything sinister but maybe something cute and fluffy like—

She reaches the end of the sidewalk and skids to a stop before she falls over the curb. The yellow hairball is sitting right beside her feet, facing the street as if it’s deciding whether or not to cross.

And it’s a cat. Not some spawn from hell or akuma which Marinette is infinitely glad for. She sighs. “You know, you startled me quite a bit there.”

The cat looks up at her, regarding her with wide bright green eyes. She’s seen orange tabby cats, yellowish tabby cats, but she hasn’t quite seen a cat this sleek and _blonde_. It’s like a real life shiny Pokemon that somehow made off with Adrien’s hair—or Chloe’s for that matter. The mental image of the latter makes her giggle. “You’re cute,” she informs it before she crosses the street and goes inside the bakery.

She carefully ducks through the throng of customers as she makes her way to the counter. “I’m home, Mama!” She kisses her on the cheek as her mother juggles receipts and then she makes her way up to her room.

She’s halfway up the stairs when her mother calls out, “Okay, but leave the cat outside, young lady.”

… What. Marinette pivots on her heel and looks down.

Sure enough, there’s the cat right on the step below her, tilting its head and trying to look as innocent as can be.

“Just because I called you cute once doesn’t mean you can invite yourself in.” She scoops it up in her arms, intending to go out through the other exit, and it lets out a small startled yelp. “And our building isn’t really fond of pets.”

“Meow.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re well-behaved but don’t you have a family to get back to?” There isn’t a collar on the neck though. “You’re very clean for an alley cat, if you’re one.”

“Meow.”

She sets it on the pavement outside the door. “This is where we say goodbye,” she tells it firmly, fully intending go back up to her room, but—

But.

The cat’s ears droop and its eyes are turning watery and Marinette has the feeling that if she closes the door on it, she’s going to risk feeling like a heartless monster and then that’s one more thing for her to mope over. She runs a hand over her face. Her room is spacious enough as long as it behaves and she has the whole weekend to ask around for a missing cat. She opens the door wider for it.

The cat raises one paw, seemingly hesitant to cross the threshold.

 “You’re lucky you’re so cute,” she mutters as she prods it to go inside the building again.

The look on its face reminds her too much of Chat Noir’s shit-eating grin.

**Author's Note:**

> > Prompt: Adrien turns into a cat(blond) due to an Akuma(famous rich boys are turning into animals) and Marinette found him. But he slowly is starting to like the idea of being Mari's cat (part of the transformation is going into the animal's mindset)
> 
> *sighs* Just when I think I get the hang of writing in present tense already, I fall flat on my face. This was supposed to be a nice short fill, but plot happened so it was supposed to be a long oneshot. But then I’ve got exams right after break so I’ll be posting this as chaptered to give myself some peace of mind.
> 
>  
> 
> [ tumblr ](http://pallasjoannas.tumblr.com/)


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